Dr. Amin Jaafari, an Arab-Israeli citizen, is a respected, dedicated surgeon at a hospital in Tel Aviv. He has learned to live with the violence that plagues his city and works tirelessly to help the victims brought to the emergency room. But one night, a deadly bombing in a local restaurant takes a horrifyingly personal turn, when his wife's body is found among the dead, bearing injuries that match those typically found on the bodies of fundamentalist suicide bombers.

People who bought this also bought...

The Sirens of Baghdad

A student at the University of Baghdad must return to his small village home when the Americans invade Iraq. There, he witnesses American soldiers kill the benign village idiot, bomb a wedding, and finally, terrorize his family in his own home. Consumed by the desire for vengeance, the youth leaves for the city, where he is taken in by a radical group.

Farewell Waltz: A Novel

In this dark farce of a novel, set in an old-fashioned Central European spa town, eight characters are swept up in an accelerating dance: a pretty nurse and her repairman boyfriend; an oddball gynecologist; a rich American (at once saint and Don Juan); a popular trumpeter and his beautiful, obsessively jealous wife; an disillusioned former political prisoner about to leave his country and his young woman ward. Farewell Waltz poses the most serious questions with a blasphemous lightness that makes us see that the modern world has deprived us even of the right to tragedy.

The Pearl That Broke Its Shell

Nadia Hashimi's literary debut is a searing tale of powerlessness, fate, and the freedom to control one's own fate that combines the cultural flavor and emotional resonance of the works of Khaled Hosseini, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Lisa See. In Kabul, 2007, Rahima and her sisters can only sporadically attend school and can rarely leave the house. Their only hope lies in the ancient custom of bacha posh, which allows young Rahima to dress and be treated as a boy until she is of marriageable age.

The Namesake

The Namesake follows the Ganguli family through its journey from Calcutta to Cambridge to the Boston suburbs. When their son is born, the task of naming him betrays the vexed results of bringing old ways to the new world. Named for a Russian writer by his Indian parents in memory of a catastrophe years before, Gogol Ganguli knows only that he suffers the burden of his heritage as well as his odd, antic name.

Miral

Written by the much-admired Italo-Palestinian journalist Rula Jebreal, Miral is a novel that focuses on remarkable women whose lives unfold in the turbulent political climate along the borders of Israel and Palestine. The story begins with Hind, a woman who sacrifices everything to establish a school for refugee Palestinian girls in East Jerusalem. Years later, Miral arrives at the school after her mother commits suicide.

maida smith says:"Glad we are finally hearing from this culture"

Publisher's Summary

Dr. Amin Jaafari, an Arab-Israeli citizen, is a respected, dedicated surgeon at a hospital in Tel Aviv. He has learned to live with the violence that plagues his city and works tirelessly to help the victims brought to the emergency room. But one night, a deadly bombing in a local restaurant takes a horrifyingly personal turn, when his wife's body is found among the dead, bearing injuries that match those typically found on the bodies of fundamentalist suicide bombers.

As evidence mounts that his wife, Sihem, was responsible for the catastrophic bombing, Dr. Jaafari must face the inescapable realization that the beautiful, intelligent, thoroughly modern woman he loved had a secret life that was far removed from the comfortable, assimilated existence they shared.

What the Critics Say

AudioFile Earphones Award Winner

"Powerful and engrossing." (Booklist) "The Attack, Yasmina Khadra's best book, is an urgent, must-read." (Paris Match) "Moving....[Khadra] nicely captures his hero's turmoil in trying to come to terms with the endless violence." (Publishers Weekly) "The Attack is a mournful detonation at the end of this summer. To read it is to undermine your tranquility, and you can't tell whether the shiver that goes through you at the end is a sign of anguish or relief." (Le Figaro)

I'm not sure what made me pick up The Attack, but I'm so glad I listened to it. The story - of a man who finds out the hard way that his wife was leading a double life - is moving and thought-provoking. Rudnicki has always been an Audible favorite, and here he gives the character of Dr. Amin Jaafari the weight he deserves, without being overbearing. This performance is complex, emotional, and highly recommended.

I knew this book would not be a walk in the park. It deals with very serious and emotional issues, that will probably not go away in our lifetime. It really addresses the top layer of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. The top layer being the end result of all the history of the region and political desicions made through out time. The book does not get into how and why the region ended up in the termoil it is experiencing, but what the end result is and how it affects real people trying to live real lives. It shows the snowball effects of how an action causes a reaction and the never ending cycle. It was nice to read a book on this topic that was fiction. Most books that deal with this topic are non-fiction and biased. Khadra managed to touch on the human tragedy on both sides. I agree with all the previous reviewers. Very thought provoking. I felt helpless and tired when it was all over.

It was a really good story. A number of islamic novelists have come out with some very good novels and emotionally provoking stories recently. This novel isn't as long as the Kite Runner for instance, and with the exception of the main character, the novel's brevity prohibits the listener from becoming as emotionally attached to the characters in the story as one would like to be; the supporting characters are sort of brushed against in this book but not experienced, this was the one drawback to the novel, whereas in the Kite Runner I sort of came to endear or hate all of the supporting characters as intrinsically as the narrator/main character. However, this novel does a good job with the underlying philosophical aspects of islamists' jihads and the effects that the wars have on the outliers in a divided community. The story also comprehensively delves into the emotions behind the Palestinian struggle in Isreal and the convuluted rationale of Palestinian Mujahadeen, which is both ridiculous and understandable at the same time. As a philosophical uptake on civil war and a conflict most people are only familiar with through news footage, this story is a good experience.

Yasmina Khadra unfolds a completely believable story here, because the circumstances are so firmly rooted in the daily realities of life in a divided land. It's easy in the West to see Palestinians only through the stereotypes of Hezbollah and Fatah, but Khadra's Dr. Jaafari is just a man trying to live a decent life and do some good in the world. He transcends his heritage, but ultimately cannot escape it.

The supremely nuanced story suffers a bit from Stefan Rudnicki's narration, which is somewhat heavy-handed.

I was intrigued by this title because I hoped that by listening I might begin to understand what would motivate someone to strap on a web of explosives, walk into a crowed restaurant, and press the button. That seems to be the basic question the main character, Dr. Jaafari, pursues, and hence the driving force of the novel. The author does a great job balancing the emotional torture inside Dr. Jaafari with the action of finding the truth. By the end, though, I'm not sure I've arrived at a place that's real or just where the author wanted to leave me. Worth the listen to make up your own mind.

Overall I really enjoyed this book. It does a good job of getting you into the heads of both sides of the Palestinian conflict, without coming across as advocating for either side. But be warned, it can be a little depressing in parts.

Relatively short listen and well worth the time. Really gave me better insight on the emotional turmoil in the Middle East from a personal perspective. Conflicted protagonist showed both sides of the issue.

Khadra has chosen an interesting subject: the reaction of an Israeli-Palestinian doctor to learning that his wife was a suicide bomber. Unfortunately, the novel is fairly predictable, the characters stereotypical and not particularly believable, and the writing (or perhaps it's the translation)--well, it's rather overwritten. I wanted to like this book and wanted to feel that I was coming to some important point or understanding from the experience of reading it, but (like Amin) I guess I never really got it, aside from some rather florid and generic statements about nationalism and humiliation.

Ironically, the male characters were more understandable,sympathetic than the females...since the author is a woman. She had the opportunity to get inside the motivations behind apparent insanity, but failed to fully explain. I want more information about all the characters than was available here.

Your report has been received. It will be reviewed by Audible and we will take appropriate action.

Can't wait to hear more from this listener?

You can now follow your favorite reviewers on Audible.

When you follow another listener, we'll highlight the books they review, and even email* you a copy of any new reviews they write. You can un-follow a listener at any time to stop receiving their updates.

* If you already opted out of emails from Audible you will still get review emails by the listeners you follow.